The trailer for the movie "The Blue Lagoon" (Columbia Pictures)
The Sundance Film Festival, one of the flagship events of the American industry, kicked off this weekend.
Two years ago, the festival was originally supposed to take place in a virtual format, and so it did happen.
A year ago, it switched to this format at the last minute due to a renewed outbreak of the Corona virus, and this year there is a gradual return to routine - the event is held in a hybrid manner.
All the films are screened at the festival complex in Utah, in the presence of the creators and stars, but most of them are also uploaded to the website afterwards for the benefit of those who are in America but couldn't physically come to the celebration, and that's how I watch them myself.
One thing hasn't changed: last year, the most talked-about hits at the festivals were docuseries from one of the major streaming services, and the same is true this year.
Gone are the days when the center of the festival was premiere screenings of indie films that would use it as a springboard for distribution in theaters.
While it still features countless feature films, they don't grab headlines.
The headlines from the first weekend were mainly captured by "Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields", a two-part documentary that will be released soon on HULU, and it is not yet clear where it will be screened.
As its name implies, it deals with the story of Brooke Shields, and as usual in the docu-biographical genre, it consists of interviews with her and her associates, as well as a variety of archive footage, some of which are rare.
Brooke Shields at the Sundance Film Festival this week (Photo: Jubal Tamio)
Shields, as I remember, was a child prodigy, who appeared in front of the spotlight at a young age even compared to other child prodigies.
Already as a toddler she started modeling and acting in movies, something she continued to do even in her youth.
The films in which he broke out are a painful commemoration of the inappropriate norms of "art cinema", of the advertising industry and of Hollywood in the seventies and eighties.
At the age of 12, Louis Male cast them to play a prostitute in "Beautiful Girl", which also included her nude scenes.
At the age of 14, Kevin Klein cast them in sexual advertisements for jeans and when criticized, boasted "What do you want me to say? I'm a bad boy".
After that she also starred in "The Blue Lagoon", a hit in which her character walks around naked throughout the film, and in "Eternal Love" by the director Franco Zeffirilli, in which she was required to play a scene of losing her virginity even though she was a virgin at the time of filming, and to elicit a closer reaction from her To a reality she didn't know, the Italian director didn't hesitate to hurt her on purpose to squeeze out cries that would look like ecstasy.
All this information is presented in the first part of the documentary, before it reaches the most painful moment, which has become a sensational headline in all the media in recent days.
When she reached college age, the star made a brave decision: to stop her career and go to study.
She was accepted to Princeton University, one of the most prestigious institutions in America, and excelled there.
When she returned to Hollywood after four years, there were already other young stars who had taken her place, and she had trouble finding roles.
Then a call came from some film person whose name is not included here.
He arranged a meeting with her to talk about a potential role, and it was revealed to her that it was an ambush, in the end he raped her.
Shields never talked about the trauma until this docu came along.
Lena Wilson directed this docu in a skillful and more importantly respectable and dignified way.
She presents Shields' testimony in the most sensitive way possible.
Another important decision: throughout the whole process, the director does not even for a moment show the nude scenes or pictures of the actress, even though she could have easily done so in all kinds of situations.
This is a significant decision from an artistic and ethical point of view and it prevents this work from devolving into sensational and exploitative realms.
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"Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields" (Photo: Sundance Festival)
It's also easy to categorize this document as "the movie where Brooke Shields talks about her rape."
It's good crowd bait, but there's a lot more to it than that.
Here is an illustration of the blatant and belittling, and sometimes also pedophilic way, in which popular TV presenters treated her and her ilk, thereby preserving and feeding the toxic culture that ultimately also led to harming her and others.
The docu begins with an archive clip in which a TV presenter shows her in her diapers and says to the entire American audience "Look what a beautiful girl, look what a beautiful girl!".
Following that, we contract Johnny Carson, who was at the time the most loved presenter in the United States and today we can already admit that he was a douchebag and a creep, and he underestimates the fact that the star excelled at a university like Princeton.
"She got a good grade in biology class," Carson jokes with a smug smile, "the teacher gave her an A in anatomy - her anatomy."
In fact, Shields got an A in other classes, and not thanks to her physical data, but thanks to her sharp mind, her eloquent articulation and other intellectual qualities she possessed.
All of these are reflected in this docu, and in the groundbreaking course of the star that it commemorates: she was one of the first celebrities in America to speak publicly about the depression they experienced after giving birth, and she did it her way in an impressive way that opened the door for others and freed the discourse.
At the time, Tom Cruise explained to her in the media that she did not understand from her own life the reasons that lead to such depression and the ways to treat it, and she did not panic and answered him sharply, with an opinion article in the New York Times and with the unforgettable response "that he should focus on the war against aliens".
The Scientologist star apologized for his words in real time and probably regrets them even now.
If he was hoping to win an Oscar for "Love in the Sky: Maverick", this docu erases any chance of that.
"Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields" lasts two and a quarter hours and is fascinating throughout.
For me, the most interesting part of all comes only at the end, during a routine dinner of Shields, her partner and their two daughters.
Shields talks to her daughters, both ten-year-olds, about her nude scenes in "Pretty Girl" compared to Sidney Sweeney's in "Euphoria", and about how she was photographed in her youth compared to the photos her daughters post of themselves on Instagram today.
They raise questions about what was, what has changed and especially what has not changed in our toxic culture, and they remind us all that this docu is not only a film with difficult stories about the past, but also a film with difficult questions about the future.
The archival footage of the film reminds us that, if only given a proper chance, Shields has always proven that, above all, she is a superb actress with perfect comedic timing.
In recent years, the former star has mostly been getting minor projects, but maybe this docu will earn her the role of a lifetime, as she deserves.
Jennifer Coolidge has already proven this year that it's never too late when.
Now it's Brooke Shields' turn.
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